


Trials Of Conscience

by Merfilly



Category: Forever Knight
Genre: Challenge Response, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-02
Updated: 2010-06-02
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:32:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Janette copes with Nicholas's issues by helping...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trials Of Conscience

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skieswideopen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skieswideopen/gifts).



Maybe it was her conscience, but Janette felt as if she were walking on a wire in the nights after Nicholas told her the full tale of his beautiful dancer. She had, over the years, had her own pets and obsessions, but she was only the girl, the useful distraction, never the true focus. For Lacroix, a _paterfamilias_ of the old Roman ways, conscious of his _dignitas_, Janette's amusements were merely hobbies. Nicholas, on the other hand, was his son, his heir. The story of the old Roman refusing to see his shameful son all the way into death rang as a kinder story than what Lacroix had intended with his trick over the dancer. For Janette could see just what the intent had been, for Nicholas to embrace his nature, and come back to the rightful way of hunters and prey, so that he ceased to embarrass Lacroix. Lacroix wanted a good son, obedient and shaped by him to feed on the night in all its glory.

Janette, however, could see the way that this would never come to pass, for there was something in Nicholas that refused to give up humanity as no more than cattle for the slaughter. Granted, the modern world had left all of them far more cautious in their ways. The Hunger had to be curbed, fed in full only on those that could not be missed by the technology and closeness of the cities that they haunted. It had not removed the contempt that most of their kind felt for the ones like Nick, tormented by guilt and angst over being predators.

"Nicholas, my love and heart, why must you be so difficult?" she whispered over the rim of her goblet, trying to ignore the frisson of danger on her spine. She could feel the web moving again, and it somehow came back to their creator. Perhaps someone had finally come to investigate his disappearance? No, Janette reasoned; there were more than enough fools who had resented Lacroix's pull on so many of their society. Enemies enough to be grateful the Roman General was at last among the truly dead. This feeling, this was something else, something deeply personal.

Janette would have to be doubly cautious to keep her ears to the wind, and her eyes on her back, as well as on Nick's.

`~`~`~`~`

"You have a problem, and it will soon catch up to two of your police officers," the woman in black told Stonetree. She had come up, dressed like a funeral was calling her name, down to the broad hat, sunglasses, and gloves, as he was walking from his car to the precinct building. Stonetree thought she looked quite familiar, yet her name eluded his tongue. When she dropped her sunglasses with a very purposeful finger, peering over them at his face directly, she spoke in a distinct pitch, so that he would obey her. "I want you to remember that Nick and Detective Schanke are in trouble. Nothing else. Do all you can to help them avoid the problem."

"I'll help them in any way I can," he told her, vaguely aware that he needed to be questioning her, yet unable to act on the impulse. In the moment he took to jog his faulty mind, she vanished away, and when he went to speak, he realized that no one was there. "Huh. Getting old," he said, the encounter forgotten, but the suggestion was in place.

Janette watched from across the street, a slight frown on her lips to have done as she had. After all, if Nicholas would just stop with this petulant phase of his, perhaps her life would be easier and less clustered with cleaning up his messes.

What choice, though, with all that she had learned, and Nicholas still too busy to stop by and see her in these dangerous times?

"Nicholas, protecting you from yourself and others is getting tiresome," she mused to herself before leaving the scene of her meddling for the safety of her nightclub.

`~`~`~`~`

The request from Cohen caught Stonetree off-guard. "Excuse me? Did you just ask me to convince my two best homicide detectives to transfer?" he asked, watching her face carefully.

"You said yourself that there have been serious threats against them being rumored from your precinct snitches," the woman said. She had a reputation as being hands-on, hardcore, and fair. Stonetree had worked one or two cases with her cooperation before, but didn't know her that well. He was oddly protective where Knight was concerned. He knew good and damn well that there was something more to the eccentric officer than Knight ever would let on, but Stonetree never pressed.

It was just like Schanke never pressed past picking on all of Knight's allergies. There was an unspoken pact to ignore the strange and unusual from Knight, so long as the job got done.

Stonetree didn't want to expose Nick to the kind of scrutiny a less understanding captain might give, and yet Cohen had a point. He had to help Knight, after all. He knew he did.

"Say I do push them into this transfer, get them to consider it," Stonetree began. "Do you understand that they come with a little baggage? They're not exactly your run-of-the-mill cops," he explained, feeling out Cohen on her stance.

"I don't care if they prefer to work the night beat in pink tutus, with the record they have," Cohen said. "I need the help to get my statistics down, and they need to get out of well-worn turf before they become a statistic for you," she added.

Stonetree slowly nodded, understanding that feeling. "I'll talk to Schanke. If he can be persuaded, I think Knight will go." No matter how antagonistic the pair could be to one another, Stonetree had spotted all the little signs of a definitive partnership there.

"I'll be waiting to hear," Cohen promised, rising to leave the office.

`~`~`~`~`

High in the Toronto skyline, a predator watched, listened, and reached with his abilities, smiling at the twists of fate that had prompted one child to protect the other. It was always good to see proper sibling bonding, and it suited him even more to use what the sister had done for the brother to make his own plans come to fruition.

"Ahh, Janette, my dark raven, how you have made things so much the easier for me, yet again," the centuries-old Roman said on the wind, knowing beyond doubt that she would feel it, and curious if she would recognize it for what it was, or if she had slipped too far from him in staying so long with the errant son in this city.

`~`~`~`~`


End file.
